Daily rail service planned to North Creek this summer

The North Creek News Enterprise is reporting that the Saratoga and North Creek Railway will operate trains daily this summer between Saratoga Springs and North Creek, with service to begin Memorial Day weekend. That’s up from five days a week last summer.

The railroad had mixed success in first year of operation. Summer ridership was healthy, and its Polar Express train often was filled to capacity, carrying more than 35,000 passengers in little more than a month.

But a lack of snow and warmer than average temperatures dampened demand for its weekend Snow Train, which carried skiers and tourists to North Creek, and the railroad’s operations manager, Steve Torrico, told Warren County officials that its 36 runs carried fewer than 1,400 passengers.

While the railroad is believed to be planning track improvements that would shorten what is now a two-hour trip, efforts to reach it for comment haven’t been successful.

One Response

They should definitively experiment with commuter trains from SS to SCH and ALB. Amtrak is building a second track on that corridor. I believe they are a fully approved FRA passenger railroad as is the LIRR and MetroNorth. Good rail service could be the answer to northway congestion.